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Constructivism

This seminar traces the development of the constructivist program in international relations in order to better understand its elements, assumptions and methods and apply those to current issues. We start by uncovering the roots of constructivism in sociology and philosophy and examine structuation theory, the English School, world systems theory, regime theory, and sociological institutionalism. The second part of this course focuses on the constructivist agenda in international relations, its boundaries and its critics. In the last part of the course we examine current research in international relations that draws on sociological methods, including work on the role of norms, epistemic communities, transnational civil society, and the origins of the state.